As California Gov. Gavin Newsom extends a program to allow state highway patrol officers to help San Francisco Bay Area cities deal with escalating crime, local communities say more is needed, while law enforcement agencies say they’re struggling with a widespread staffing shortage.

Meanwhile, Newsom has called attention to what he called an extreme policy that prevents police officers from pursuing suspects in the city of Oakland.

The governor initially sent dozens of California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers to Oakland about a year ago to crack down on local criminal activity, after a number of businesses had shuttered due to higher crime rates. The officers were often deployed in surges of 20 to 30 officers at a time, said Newsom.

The CHP also launched operations in other Bay Area cities and some Southern California locations including Bakersfield and San Bernardino.

“This partnership has been extraordinarily successful,” the governor said at a press conference on Dec. 27. However, he said the state is at “an inflection point in terms of the state’s support.”

The extra police assistance for Oakland was expected to end at the end of December 2024, but the governor said he would allow it to continue until the end of January.

At the same time, Newsom asked local cities including Oakland and Vallejo to do more to combat crime.

It sent a mixed message, according to some community activists.

“I really have no idea where things stand,” Vallejo resident and local Neighborhood Watch member Paula Conley, who petitioned the governor for the extra help, told The Epoch Times. “It’s not consistent and not enough. I’m not sure if he’s going to send a few more our way.”

Conley started a petition nearly one year ago asking the governor for more police help after crime spiked and an illegal gathering of cars, called a sideshow, became violent.

Her petition on Change.org had received more than 3,500 signatures by Jan. 9, but Newsom’s response has been mixed, Conley said.

CHP Operations

The governor announced on Dec. 27 that he planned to expand CHP assistance in Vallejo, Oakland, and other East Bay operations.

In February 2024 and July 2024, the governor sent a surge of CHP officers to the region, quadrupling the number of shifts officers worked.

The CHP also installed 480 surveillance cameras in the region to help with crime investigations.

At the press conference, Newsom said he directed the CHP to expand its efforts working in Vallejo to enhance public safety, which has helped bolster police presence for the understaffed city department.

Newsom, however, said Vallejo police need to fill their empty positions.

“They think, somehow, the state’s going to come in and provide the support for free,” Newsom said. “We’re not going to be in that business. We are in the business of support. ... We have our limits.”

The Vallejo Police Department is only staffed at 60 percent, according to department spokesman Sgt. Rashad Hollis. Out of 129 officer positions, only 77 are filled, but some of those officers are injured or on leave.

Other officers left the department after they were hurt, while some retired, and others decided to transfer to other police departments, according to Hollis.

“I would say we’re a little more than a little [understaffed],” Hollis told The Epoch Times. “There’s a staffing shortage that’s hit the nation.”

Still, the police department is actively hiring new officers and has recruits currently training at multiple police academies in Northern California, Hollis said.

The CHP has assisted the department for a while, along with sheriff’s deputies and officers from adjoining jurisdictions, according to Hollis.

Violence and Crime

During the sideshow that prompted Conley to start her petition for more state help in February 2024, a local man driving a truck became stuck in the group of motorists. Conley said the crowd pulled the man from his truck and began beating him.

The victim was able to get away and run to a nearby convenience store to get help, but the group set his truck on fire and he was shot in the leg.

“It was a completely out-of-control situation,” Conley said.

As a third-generation Vallejo native, Conley remembers growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, when the city was starting to get “rough around the edges,” she said.

In 1996, the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, a Navy base, closed, which sent the city into an economic nosedive.

“Our city did not prepare and bring in another economic base,” Conley said. “It seems to be in a death spiral.”

Vallejo has become a regular spot for large and violent sideshows, primarily started by people from out of town, she said.

Drug crime, shootings, and shoplifting have also become commonplace, with some prostitution appearing rampant on Sonoma Boulevard, according to the petition.

Conley’s petition gathered further attention in December 2024, when an indie rock band traveling from London was allegedly robbed in front of a Starbucks and gas station in the city.

The band, called Sports Team, reported on social media that robbers broke into their rental van and stole personal belongings while they were inside Starbucks ordering coffee.

Band members said the suspects pulled out a gun when they confronted them, but told police they weren’t sure about the gun, according to Hollis. As a result, police were not dispatched to the scene and the band was told to submit an online report, Hollis told The Epoch Times in December 2024.

Oakland Policies

At the recent press conference, the governor and local officials called on Oakland to change its decade-long policy that restricts city officers from pursuing suspects.

The CHP has been able to pursue fleeing suspects in Oakland, while city officers are prohibited from doing so, said officials.

“This is an outlier in the state of California, maybe an outlier in the United States of America,” Newsom said.

The governor said local officials needed to “address the crisis at hand” and change their pursuit policies.

Meanwhile, local businesses say burglaries are still rampant.

Xia Yu, the owner of Noodle House in Oakland, told The Epoch Times the restaurant was burglarized on Nov. 1, 2024. The thieves allegedly stole laptops and other equipment worth more than $5,000.

The thief also stole the money drawer with less than $1,000 in it, Yu said. Luckily, the furniture was not damaged and the Noodle House reopened.

Yu called police but was told they had a police officer shortage and they had to file a report online.

Other business owners in the area were afraid to speak to the media about the crime, fearing repercussions from criminals.

Oakland attorney and small-business owner Jonathan Madison said he has seen evidence of more police presence in the city but that the city still needs a lot of improvement.

Residents in the Bay Area feel the rights of criminals “have been placed above the rights of victims for too long now,” he said.

“While there is still considerable crime, there is a difference being made,” Madison told The Epoch Times in an email. “The problem is that more CHP officers can only do so much without legislation that addresses crime. ... You can’t just fight crime from the bottom up. The law must fight it from the top down.”

Community activist and founder of Neighbors Together Oakland Seneca Scott agreed that the additional CHP officers made a difference but said the city needs to do more.

Scott told The Epoch Times that “local progressives celebrate the California Highway Patrol’s success in pursuing criminals while simultaneously demonizing the Oakland Police Department and forbidding them from engaging in similar pursuits.”

He called for a return to principled and responsible governing “without delay.”